Smart Textiles for In Situ Monitoring of Composites

Composites are seeing increasing application in a range of areas including automotive and aerospace due to their intrinsic beneficial properties such as light weight and mechanical performance. However, the failure behavior of fibre reinforced composites is a multifaceted evolution of microscopic damage occurring within – which is often difficult to monitor. At the same time, much of composite technology is not standardized and is often proprietary, which creates certification issues in regulatory compliance for each application.

This book proposes a ‘smart textile’ approach to help solve the problem of real time monitoring of the structural health of composites, as well as to monitor the composites manufacturing process. Smart textiles are fitted with flexible adapted sensors and actuators, and are able to detect stress, deformation, temperature changes, light intensity, and other signals from the environment.

The book combines textiles, composites and structural health monitoring knowledge to present an integrated approach to the deployment of smart textiles to monitor failure modes in composite materials. It introduces the theory of smart textiles for monitoring and measurement applications, and describes established and developing techniques and approaches for using smart textiles for in-situ monitoring of composites in different fiber/matrix combinations and hybrid structures, through reviews of academic research and real world case studies.

Proposes a ‘smart textile’ approach to in situ monitoring of the structural health of composites, in which the composite structure’s functionalized reinforcement also plays the role of a sensor for internal damageDiscusses the impact of this technology on the different reinforcement materials and matricesDemonstrates - through a review of research and case studies - the implementation of the sensing and measurement systems, and the analysis of results

Part 1 Smart Textiles for Monitoring and Measurement Applications 1. Introduction 2. Smart Textiles 3. Sensors - Definition and Classification 4. Connectors 5. Conductive Polymers and Fibres 6. Textile Sensors Development Steps 7. Characterisation of Textile Sensors 8. Interface phenomena of textile sensors and related textile reinforced thermoplastic composites

Part 2 Composites and Hybrid structures 9. Textile Reinforced Composites 10. Glass Fibres 11. Aramid Fibres 12. Carbon Fibres 13. Bio Sourced Fibres 14. Failure Mechanisms in Composites 15. Hybrid Structures - Bonding Issues

Part 3 Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) of composite structures 16. Health Monitoring Definitions 17. State of the art of traditional monitoring techniques 18. Interface phenomena of textile sensors and related textile reinforced thermoplastic composites 19. Predictive maintenance concept

Part 4 Structural Health Monitoring of processes related to composite manufacturing 20. Weaving Process 21. Stamping Process Supervision 22. Infusion Process Supervision